A change
of job, no change of job, a change of medication, and a change of character !

For
Denise, a new job. In fact, when we went away at the end of April, she was
lucky enough to have two job offers on the table. She opted for Vets4Pets
new practice at Emerson's Green

These
photos were taken at the official opening on June 6th

For Chris meanwhile, it's no
change. The job is fine, but something closer to home than Reading (79
miles and at least 90 minutes each way) would
be most welcome !

'The Old Sorting Office' is
the Reading MOMs' HQ, where they hide behind the 'Improving Reading's Railway'
sign.

'MOM' stands for 'Mobile
Operations Manager' by the way.

Remember the dreadful
weather that we had in January and February ? Of course you do !
This was Abingdon Road, Oxford, photographed by Chris from the Oxford MOM's van
on January 7th.

"We've had a report of a
tree down next to the bridge at the end of Aldermaston Station"

This was the night of
February 14th, which turned out to be the final big storm of the winter.

Occasionally of course, it
all goes to ratshit on the M4. Nice to know that on this occasion we were
still allowed to do 40 though !

The official Network Rail
pigeon-botherers, seen here in the back of their handler's van. The one on
the left has a discolouration to his feathers above his right eye, which was
brought about by flying into a plate glass window. Not sure whether that
made the accident stats or not. They're Harris Hawks by the way.

This time last year, Bonzo
was looking, to be blunt, old and stiff. However when she had her first
annual check-up, Carla, her new vet, discovered that her back muscles were all
tensed up. A few days on the right drug later, the improvement was
spectacular. She recently ran about six miles along the Tarka trail with
us.....

...though we have finally
convinced her to use 'The Doggy Bag' for an occasional rest !

"We need to talk about
Jensen" !

Truly, he has become the
stuff of horror stories !

2013's 'Cute Kitten' has
become 2014's 'Biting Burmese Bastard' ! Truth be told, the problems had
already started when we posted last year's missive, it's just that at that stage
we hoped that the problem, which began as he reached puberty, would be cured by
'having him done'. This we did in January, but it had no effect
on his 'inappropriate predatory behaviour' whatsoever. His insurance company even agreed to pay for a consultation
with a behaviourist. She came to visit in May. In fact three of them
did, including two trainees. Jensen bit two of them. Thankfully
however he's only gone for the throat - Chris's - once, though the owner of the
throat concerned is adamant that if he pulls that stunt again it's going to be a
one-way trip to
www.burmesecatsociety.org.uk/rescue/

In the meantime he
apparently continues to pursue the philosophy espoused by John Bird in 'Absolute Power',
namely "Never do enough to rise to the top of anyone's list of priorities", but
it's a close run thing on occasions !

'Old Six-eyes' sent this
selfie to Denise (who was away at the time) after a recent unprovoked attack.

Meanwhile, his reputation
continues to spread.....

In other news, as they say,
we finally got round to doing something about the state of the conservatory,
which was best summed up by the word 'rotten', although it soon became clear
that 'doing something' actually meant 'get a new one'.

Okay, deep breath, here we
go....

More on the conservatory
later - on with the photos !

We made our usual visit to
Tenerife in January. We requested "a high apartment" with a sea view.
Hmm.

Although technically, we did
have a sea view, well, sort of !

So, no view of the sunset !
This led to 'roving cocktails', where you find somewhere that you can
watch the sunset.....

....then stick the camera on
a tripod, tell it to take a photo every couple of minutes.....

It was the lead singer of
the French entry, which managed a total of deux points.

One can only speculate what
the French nation would think, if they knew it was an M&S shirt !

Denise accepts her prize
from the winning beard.

Isn't this just beautiful ?
Seen at Beale Park boat show in June.

Owner looking like her dog ?

A team of Newfoundlands gave
a display of water rescue, barking and farting.

That's better !

June 1st. We host a
lunch to christen the conservatory.

Never mind "I hope it's warm
enough to have lunch outside", it warm enough to have breakfast outside !

Jude dropped in from
Stornoway, along with her new squeeze Nick

We were joined for lunch by
Andy & Wendy, plus Nick Harris and Lucy Meaker, shortly to become 'Mrs Harris'.
Photo by Jude.

Now then, time for France...

Nick and Lucy joined us for
the first week. Here we're enjoying dusk at Fongrave on the River Lot, and
yes, those are a couple of English narrowboats moored in the background.

Dawn the following morning,
photographed by the wife who got up for a wee at 6 o'clock !

It's one o'clock, and time
for lunch, dum de dum de dum dum*. This is the current limit of navigation
of the lower Lot.

* That's 'dum de dum' as in
Genesis lyrics (I Know What I Like), not as in The Archers, which is of course 'dum
de dum de dum de dum' etc etc

Denise and Crew

Breasted up with other boats
waiting for passage up the Garonne**.

Note the rival adult males
here seen displaying the size of their stomachs. Yep, been watching David
Attenborough again !

Now pay attention. The
larger of these two vessels is 'Confluences', which is used to give extra oomph
to boats navigating the River Garonne upstream from Nicole ( shown above, where
the River Lot joins the Garonne) to St Leger, where the River Ba´se joins), a distance of
around 3 miles. The four of us are about to get a ride on 'Confluences',
whilst our 'Calypso' is assisted by 'Tom Pouce', the smaller boat.

Here, 'Tom Pouce' starts to
give 'Calypso' a shove, adding another 100 bhp to her own rather more modest 63.

These photos, plus those
marked ** taken by and used with kind permission of Richard Pearson

Calypso catches up,
looking mighty impressive, given that you can't see 'Tom Pouce' in this shot !

Arriving at St Leger**

Denise plays in the fountain
at Valence

The ducks enjoy themselves
as we negotiate the aqueduct over the River Tarn. The railway bridge in
the background is mighty impressive, but very noisy (as in rumbly) when trains
go over, hence we decided to moor well away from it !

Heading into Agen, for Nick
& Lucy to get their train back to Toulouse.

Chris's mum Margaret turned
91 this year. This time round we took her to Hestercombe Gardens, near
Taunton

Here she poses, furthest
from camera, along with Chris, sister Sheila, and nephew Ed.

A weekend with Colin Smith
in early August included an invitation-only visit to Lord McAlpine's private
railway at Fawley, near Henley-on-Thames.

Here, a tank engine tackles
a gradient of up to 1 in 13 (which is phenomenally steep for a railway)
up from the valley.

Chris was delighted to find
a fully functioning signalbox...

Which included an old Train
Describer which used to live in the old Bristol East box, which closed in 1969.

View from the Signal Box

Lots of classic cars on
display

The museum included this
print of Keynsham station. Railway cranks amongst you will be aware that
the presence of mixed gauge track dates the original painting to the early
1890s, way back in the good ole' days before First Great Western !

A member of the Fawley Youth
Opportunities Programme checks tickets.....

Sometimes, you get lucky.
This year, we had what was quite simply the best September boating weather ever.

Lunch. Starter.
The diet continues....

Totally chilled at
Stratford...

..and always lots to watch.

A brilliant week !

Late September. Not
quite sure who is making an honest man/woman out of whom here, but Nick & Lucy
tied the knot in late September

The wedding cake - they were
brought together by a shared love of biking.

Less formally attired, the
morning after

In November it was back to
'Sandpipers', along with Andy & Wendy and Nick & Lucy.

This is the view from the
loft conversion, looking across to Appledore.

We were very lucky with the
weather - this is the Saturday pre-second-breakfast stroll on the beach.

A highly jovial supper !

We rounded of November with
a sleepover with Tom and Fliss at Clevedon

Playing with 'Panoramic'
mode on the phone, hence the Bristol Channel appears to be tiled !

Clevedon Pier

Tenerife in January ? No,
The Bristol Channel on the last day of November !

Into December now, and a few shots of all the work going on at Reading,
taken on the 12th.....

This is the new flyover - sorry, 'elevated railway' - seen
from the Tilehurst end looking east towards Reading.

This will be brought into use over the Xmas / New Year period

As well as a flyover, we'll have a 'dive-under'. Two new
lines leave Oxford Road Jcn (pay attention at the back there !) and will dive
under the flyovers, before joining the existing main and relief lines at the
western end of Reading station.

Here they curve round to the north-east....

Crossing impressive new storm drains....

This is where they dive under the flyover, or to be pedantic
the two flyovers....

Here you see them both. The top one is the one shown in
the first of these photos whilst in
front of it is the new 'Festival Line' (no, I don't know either why it's called
that either) which rises to clear Cow Lane, then drops down before sashaying
under the higher flyover to join the existing relief lines.

The new Feeder Lines and the Festival Line will be commissioned at Easter 2015.

Occasionally though, we still get to see the old timers - 2 x
BR Standard 5s in this case, caught between Maidenhead and Reading.

The weekend before Xmas we stayed at Watermouth Cove, between
Ilfracombe and Combe Martin

Sunset at Woolacombe

Cosy little 'Seashells'

Visiting the Lynton and Barnstaple Railway, Denise and Bonzo
pose next to 'Isaac' at Killington Lane

Bonzo poses on the Coastal path near Woody Bay

And finally....

Muttley has arrived, just in time for Xmas

'Denise's Chest Puppy' gets carried to the field on Xmas
morning

Have a
great Xmas 2014, and a happy and prosperous 2015,

but watch out, in case HE'S BEHIND YOU !

Chris & Denise

P.S: If by any chance you feel the urge to look at previous years, here are
the links: